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$3.75 million endows new
chair in Israel Studies

February
29, 2008 -- SF
State's Jewish Studies Program is to be transformed by a $3.75 million
gift from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund. The gift will support an
endowed chair in Israel Studies and is the largest endowed chair gift
ever received in the California State University (CSU).

Fred Astren, professor and director of the Jewish Studies
Program.

A portion of the endowment will also be used to elevate the Jewish Studies
Program into a full academic department. The new department of Jewish studies
will be the only such academic department in the CSU system and the only
one in the Bay Area offering undergraduate study. "This reflects the
maturity of the programs that we have offered since 1993, and we are honored
to be granted this solid institutional standing," said Fred Astren,
professor and director of the Jewish Studies Program.

The gift places SF
State at the forefront of an emerging new academic field, Israel Studies,
which focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to the society and culture
of Israel.

"We are excited about introducing Israel Studies into Jewish
Studies," Astren said. "This new position will enrich the curriculum
and complement the current faculty's expertise in Jewish literature, pre-modern
Jewish history and American Jewish history."

The Richard and Rhoda Goldman
Chair in Israel Studies will also contribute to scholarly conversations in
such departments as political science, history, international relations and
the emerging Middle East and Islamic Studies Program.

"As conflicts
in the Middle East continue, it is vitally important to provide students
with a deeper and more fully developed understanding of Israel. The purpose
of this professorship is to accomplish that goal," said Richard N. Goldman,
founder and president of the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.

Bay Area philanthropist
Richard N. Goldman has long been a friend of SF State. He serves on several
University advisory boards. In 2001, he received the honorary degree doctor
of humane letters from SF State.

Support from the Goldman Fund has allowed
SF State to establish the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Chair in Jewish Studies
and Social Responsibility. This academic year, a grant from the Fund is supporting
the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Visiting Professor in Israel Studies, an initiative
which was the prototype for establishing the permanent endowed chair in Israel
studies.

"I want to thank the Goldman Foundation for so generously expanding
its visionary partnership with SF State," University President Robert
A. Corrigan said. "The chair in Israel Studies will put us on the cutting
edge of a new and exciting area of scholarship. It will strengthen our longstanding
commitment to keeping SF State a place where all ideas and points of view
can be frankly and openly explored and where discourse remains civil."

This
landmark gift is the culmination of years of hard work to introduce Israel
Studies on campus. "The dynamic, skilled and collaborative efforts of the
Dean of Humanities Paul Sherwin, the faculty, and development staff in their
work with the Goldman Fund have delivered an historic first, not only to
SF State, but the biggest endowed chair gift in CSU history," said Donna
Blakemore, associate vice president of advancement.

Recruitment of the Richard
and Rhoda Goldman Professor in Israel Studies will begin in fall 2008, with
the appointee expected to join the faculty in August 2009.